Asian Innovation: The Big Question

At The Wall Street Journal’s Unleashing Innovation conference in Singapore, the question of innovation in Asia has come up again and again. At a panel with Hal Gregersen, professor of Innovation and Leadership at INSEAD and Ya-Qin Zhang, chairman of Microsoft’s Asia Pacific research and development group, two tales stood out.

Mr. Zhang said when he oversaw products at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, Wash., he would get weekly updates from engineers. They would say projects were either green, meaning everything was fine; yellow, meaning there were a few problems; or red, meaning there were major problems. The engineers always solved the problems and delivered on time.

In China, at the same weekly update sessions, every product was green, at every meeting. Why? Because the engineers in China wanted to resolve the problems themselves, and also because of a general discomfort with asking questions in Asia.

That came through in a tale from Mr. Gregersen, who said often at Asian companies, questions get squelched. That makes employees uncomfortable asking provocative questions around their peers. And that in turn stifles innovation.

Leaders of companies, especially in Asia, need to create a safe space around them so questions can be asked without fear.

This theme has come up repeatedly at the conference. People have blamed education systems in Asia that encourage memorization rather than original thinking. Jay Walker, the founder of Priceline.com, said the system doesn’t encourage imagination, which is essential for big innovations. Others have cited the hierarchical nature of Asia companies, where the senior executives are believed to know everything.